Salar Jung Museum of Hyderabad
Salar Jung Mueum is located on the banks of the river Musi, not very far from the other historical monuments of the city of Hyderabad. This is a collection of Salar Jung family over the years where you can find all sorts of manuscripts, paintings and sculptures from India, Europe, Middle east and Far east.
About Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad
Salar Jung museum has the collections of Mir Yousouf Ali Khan who was popularly known as Salar Jung III. Since he had no direct descendants Government of India appointed a committee to administer the Salar Jung Estate. Later Salar Jung Museum was established in the year 1951 in Diwan Deodi, his residencial palace. The Salar Jung museum was opened to the public by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who was then then Prime minister of India.
In 1958, through a compromise deed the Government took over the museum and the museum was administered by the Ministry of Scientific Research and cultural affairs. Later it was transferred to the Autonomous board having Governor of Andhra Pradesh as the chairman and the museum was transferred to the present location. The family of Salar Jungs were of great importance as for five generations they had been Prime minsters to Nizams, the erstwhile rulers of Hyderabad. Collections at the Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad
The collections at the Salar Jung Museum are the mirrors of the pages of history and the environment from 2nd century BC to early 20th century AD. You can see collections from different cultures namely Greek, Roman, Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Christian and Islamic of various countries and of various materials. The collections can be divided into Indian Art, Middle eastern Art, European art, far eastern art and the children's section.
There is a separate gallery which is devoted to the family of Salar Jung.
Stone sculptures, painted textiles like kalamkari, wood carvings, bronze images, Jade carvings, manuscripts, metalware , arms and armour etc are there in the Indian Art collections at the Museum.
From Middle east you can find the arts objects from Persia, syria and Egypt such as carpets, paper (manuscripts), ceramics, glass, metal ware, furniture, lacquer etc.
Salar Jung Museum is may be one of the Indian museums in which you can see a fairly extensive collection of Far Eastern Art, like, Sino-Japanese art objects of porcelain, bronze, enamel, lacquer ware, embroidery, paintings, wood and inlay work. There is an European collection of art objects like oil paintings, aesthetically attractive glass objects to majestic furniture, splendid examples of ivory, enamel ware and clocks. In the children's section the collection is varied and bears a testimony to the vast range of interest and diverse nature in collecting objects of thefamily. The Children would find the collection informative to them, apart from providing delight.Galleries in the Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad
There are 38 galleries in the museum as three blocks namely Indian block with 27 galleries, Western block with 7 galleries and the Eastern Block with 4 galleries. In total there are 13654 objects on display.
The Indian collections are from the States of Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, and places like Kangra, Basholi, Jaipur, Udaipur, Mewar, Hyderabad, Golconda, Bijapur, Kurnool and Nirmal. The Western collections are from England, Ireland, France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Venice and Austria.
The Eastern collections are from countries like China, Japan, Burma, Korea, Nepal, Thailand, Indonesia and from Middle East countries like Egypt, Syria, Persia and Arabia. The Indian art objects comprise of stone sculptures, bronzes, wood carvings, miniature paintings, modern paintings, ivory, jade, textiles, metal ware, manuscripts, bidri, arms and armour, utility ware etc.
Founder's Gallery has portraits and personal belongings of the Salar Jung family, namely, portraits of Mir Alam, Munir-ul-Mulk II Mohd. Ali Khan, Salar Jung I, Salar Jung II and a good number of oil paintings of Salar Jung III displaying various facets of his personality, displayed there. You can also see two masnads with golden Zari work, canopies on silverpoles used during the lifetime of Salar Jung III and his grandfather add attraction to the Gallery.
For more details about these galleries visit Salar Jung Museum GalleriesSalar Jung Museum Library at Hyderabad
Salar Jung Museum Library was opened to the public in the year 1961. The manuscripts collection in the museum library is one of the richest in terms of its quality. The unique specimens contain many calligraphic art and ornate embellishments with beautiful decoration and blending of colours, They have blended colours with a profuse use of gold and mineral colours like lapsis lazuli for blue, pearls for white, Zabarjad / Emerald for green and shangraf for red.
The Library includes a collection of books and manuscripts acquired and the origin of some of them dates back to 1655 AD. Nawab Turab Ali Khan gave the shape of the full fledged library and was later augumented by Nawab Mir Laiq Ali Khan, Salar Jung II and finally by Nawab Mir Yousuf Ali Khan, the Salar Jung III. The books of the Library consists of 62,772 printed books of which 41,208 are in English, 13,027 in Urdu, 1108 in Hindi, 1105 in Telugu, 3,576 in Persian, 2,588 in Arabic and 160 in Turkish languages.
The Manuscripts in the library comes from various media like parchment, textile, palm leaf, paper, glass, wood, and stone, different languages such as Arabic, Persian, Urdu, a few of Turkish, Dakhni, Pushtu, Hindi, Sanskrit, Telugu and Oriya and addresses more than eighty four subjects. You can find more than one thousand five hundreds calligraphic panels and albums of miniature paintings of different schools as well.
To learn more about the manuscripts and the books visit Manuscripts in the Library
Timings: 10.00 am - 5.00 pm (Closed on Fridays & Public Holidays)
Entry Fee:
Rs. 10 for Indian Nationals,
Rs. 150 for Foreign Nationals,
Students with ID card are given 50% concession
Contact: 040 24523211Contact Details of the Salar Jung Museum
Director
Salar Jung Museum
Hyderabad - 500 002
Andhra Pradesh, India.
Phone: 040 24576443 / 040 24523211, 13 Ext: 301
Fax: 040-24572558
Email :salarjung@hotmail.com
